I 9 8 NATURE STUDIES. 



men have been delighted with his performances in this 

 direction. The mode of procedure is this : His master 

 tells him to sit down,, and shows him a piece of cake. 

 He is then questioned., and barks his answers. Say 

 he is asked what is the square root of 16 or of 9 ; he 

 will bark three or four times, as the case may be. Or 

 such a sum as ' 6 + 12 3 divided by 5/ he will 

 always answer correctly: more prolonged calculations 

 rather fatigue him. The piece of cake is, of course, 

 the meed of such cleverness. It must not be supposed 

 that in these performances any sign is consciously 

 made by his questioner. None whatever. We explain 

 the performance by supposing that he reads in his 

 master's expression when he has barked rightly: 

 certainly he never takes his eyes from his master's 

 face/' A singular performance, and one showing that 

 some dogs possess not only keen vision, but keener 

 powers of perception than most men. It would, how- 

 ever, be a mistake to regard Kepler's performance as 

 illustrating the possession of actual reasoning power 

 by animals. For certainly the calculations he seemed 

 to conduct were conducted in reality by his master. 



This intelligent animal showed excellent judgment 

 when a large photograph of one of Landseer's dogs 

 (that is, a photograph of a dog pictured by Landseer) 

 was shown him. He showed his perception of the 

 painter's skill by at once distinctly recognising that 

 the photograph represented a strange dog, of whom, 

 by-the-way, he manifested decided jealousy. Kepler 

 knew the meaning of many words. He recognised 



